When I looked through the chosen recipes for January for Tuesdays with Dorie I saw that the Bakewell Tart was on the list. After looking through the recipe I realized it sounded familiar. In fact, I had seen this once before, on the CBC Great Canadian Baking Show (Season 4, pastry) for one of the technical bakes!

But, what is a Bakewell Tart? The Bakewell tart is a British classic dessert and usually has a short crust pastry, frangipane and jam (typically raspberry). From what I have read, there can actually be different variations. 

To me, it feels like you you are mixing the essence of a pie and cake together. Perhaps that simplifies it a bit, but let’s go into how it went for me. 

To make the recipe in Dorie Greenspan’s Baking with Dorie you first make a pie crust. Hers is a pate sucree (mixture of cold butter, flour, egg and sugar).  The dough is then rolled out into an 11inch circle, then partially blind baked (where you add pie weights onto the crust – to keep it from bubbling up in the oven). 

Blind baked pie crust cooling

At this point, you can decorate with just a drizzle of icing (icing sugar mixed with water). However the first time I decorated my Bakewell Tart it turned out terrible. So in an effort to make it more aesthetically pleasing (for myself) I added icing all over the tart and then attempted to make some pink lines for a feathering effect. That didn’t go nearly as well as I had hoped but it looks decent! 

In all honesty, if this was a real technical bake in a real baking challenge I would have failed on the presentation alone. My feathering (for the lines) did not go very well as I was trying to work fast as the icing was starting to set! 

I love how tasty this Bakewell Tart is. It isn’t too sweet, despite the icing on top and the haskap jam went very well with the rest of the tart. The cake part of the tart has a nice almond flavour from the almond extract as well as the addition of almond meal and flour. I personally also love the nice crispy pate sucree crust at the bottom as it is my favourite part about pies. So, there you have it, my experience of baking up my first Bakewell Tart! 

You can get the recipe for Steph’s Bakewell Tart on pg.298 of Baking with Dorie or here.

Butter Chicken Recipe from Coconut Lagoon’s Cookbook

We loved the Shrimp Mango Curry that we cooked from Coconut Lagoon’s cookbook that we actually made the dish two more times over the month of September! Another recipe that everyone will surely want to try from Chef Joe Thottungal’s cookbook is the Butter Chicken. As mentioned in my last post, the Coconut Lagoon cookbook celebrates Chef Joe’s cooking journey that led him to open a restaurant in Ottawa, which celebrates the food from his homeland, Kerala located in Southern India. Kerala food focuses more on seafood, agriculture and spices. Rice, fish, and coconut typically dominate the cuisine. Kerala spices are typically peppercorns with mustard seeds, curry leaves with cinnamon, chilies, cardamom and cloves, kudampuli, and tumeric.

Dan and I with Chef Joe at Coconut Lagoon’s cookbook launch

In his book, Chef Joe talks about how butter chicken is really a north Indian dish and that Coconut Lagoon is a south Indian restaurant. However, after many years he finally put Butter Chicken on the menu as his son Matthew claims that butter chicken is his favourite. This recipe for Butter Chicken is dedicated to his son.

In terms of preparation, gathering the ingredients for this recipe was fairly easy. If you are uncertain about buying a huge quantity of spices, bulk stores would be a good place to shop (e.g. Bulk Barn). Though, we found some pretty inexpensive prices at Superstore/Loblaws for coriander and chili powder. The one tricky part was actually finding a good price for cashew nuts!

You do need to pre-marinate the chicken with yogurt, chili powder, tumeric, salt and oil the night before. This actually helps the chicken taste tender when cooked.

Butter Chicken cooking away

• 2 cups raw cashew nuts
• 2 lbs boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into 1-inch cubes
• 3 Tbsp plain yogurt
• 1/2 tsp red chili powder
• 1/2 tsp ground turmeric
• 1/2 tsp salt, plus extra to taste
• 1 tsp coconut oil
• 1/4 cup (1/2 stick) unsalted butter
• 2 small onions, chopped
• 1  1/2 tsp Ginger-Garlic Paste (recipe below)
• 1  1/2 tsp ground coriander
• 2 tomatoes, finely chopped
• 3 Tbsp tomato paste
• 1  1/2 tsp sugar
• 1  1/2 tsp dried fenugreek leaves (kasuri methi)
• 1/2 tsp ground cumin
• 1/2 tsp chaat masala
• 3 cups milk
• Chopped cilantro, for garnish

• 1 (4-inch) piece ginger, peeled and coarsely chopped (1/4 cup)
• 10 cloves garlic

• 2 cups Basmati Rice
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 1/2 tsp fresh lemon juice
• 1 1/2 tsp vegetable oil

Butter chicken served with Basmati Rice and Pappadums

Excerpts from Coconut Lagoon by Joe Thottungal. Copyright © 2019 Coconut Lagoon. Published by Figure1 Publishing Inc. Reproduced by arrangement with the Publisher. All rights reserved.

Assembled ingredients for Paprika-Garlic Shrimp Tacos

Why wait for Taco Tuesday, when you can have tacos today? Or even tomorrow? It has been pretty hot here in Ottawa, so I have been leaning towards meals with limited oven or stove time. So even though it seems that there are many ingredients needed to make this specific taco recipe, I am sure you already have most of these ingredients in your fridge/freezer. I am also a sucker for dips as snacks, so avocado and salsa are pretty much permanent ingredient that I have on hand. 


Now, don’t feel like you have to make your own guacamole for this recipe. Buying guacamole is perfectly fine in my books (I also have really loved Farm Boy and all their products here in Ottawa)! In fact the salsa I used in this recipe is store bought. 

Paprika-Garlic Shrimp Tacos

Feel free to make your own tortillas or buy store bought ones. We have this huge bag of masa harina that I bought when we first moved to Ottawa, so I really needed to use it. You can get a more detailed method of how we make our tortillas over on my blog post Quick and Easy by Step Homemade Tortillas if you want home made. Masa Harina is also gluten free (just make sure the package says gluten free) as it is made of corn. The brand I use is Maseca.


In terms of planning, make the guacamole, grate the cheese, and assemble salsa and veggies into bowls before cooking the shrimp and making the tortillas. That way, you can start assembling and eating once the tortillas are finished cooking.

Paprika-Garlic Shrimp with mushhroom, garlic & onion

Paprika-Garlic Shrimp Tacos Ingredients

Paprika-Garlic Shrimp

• 300g (2/3 lb) shrimp- zipperback, deveined D*I used pacific White Shrimp
• 1 large mushroom (or 3 smaller ones) sliced
• 1 small onion (chopped)
• 1/2 tsp paprika
• 4-5 cloves garlic (diced)

Guacamole

• 2 ripe avocados
• 2 tablespoon lime juice
• zest of one lime
• 1/2 of a red onion (diced)
• salt & pepper to taste

Homemade Tacos (makes 9 small tortillas, 3-4″ in diameter)

• 1 cup masa harina (also can use corn flour) 
• 3/4 cup water

Other ingredients:

• 1/2 cup grated cheese (your choice) *I used Balderson Cheddar
• 1/2 cup salsa (your choice)
• 1 cup arugula 

Ingredients for Paprika-Garlic Shrimp Tacos – featuring some of my wheel thrown bowls!

Directions for Paprika-Garlic Shrimp Tacos

1. Prep guacamole – In a small bowl mash avocados, lime juice, lime zest, salt & pepper together. Stir in red onion. Set aside in refrigerator while prepping rest of the taco fixings.
2. Follow the instructions to defrost the shrimp.
3. Peel the shell off the shrimp.
4. Use a paper towel to absorb excess liquid.
5. In a small bowl place the shrimp and mix in 1/4 tsp paprika, then set aside.
6. Heat a pan to medium-high heat. Add in 1 tablespoon of oil. 
7. Once the pan is hot, add in the chopped garlic and onion. Once onion starts to soften, add in the other 1/4 tsp of paprika. 
8. Continue to stir, and then add in the sliced mushrooms. Cook mushrooms until softened and browned along with the garlic and onions. 
9. Add shrimp to the pan. Cook until done (approximately 5 minutes; Shrimp is cooked when it curls).
10. Once shrimp is cooked, place in a dish and set aside. 
11. Make the tortillas by mixing together 1 cup masa harina with 3/4 cup of water (for more visual pictures see my post here).
12. Roll 9 balls that are approximately ping pong or golf ball in size. Cover them loosely with saran wrap while rolling to keep them from drying out. Place saran wrap/parchment paper on top of each ball. Using a flat bottom pan, sandwich the ball between some saran wrap or parchment pap. The saran wrap will prevent the dough from sticking. Flatten each ball to make a tortilla 3 1/4″-4″ in diameter. 
13. Cook each tortilla on a pan (medium-high heat); approximately 50 sec each side. We use a cast-iron pan but a regular pan will work too.
14. Place cooked tortillas in a stack, and cover with a kitchen cloth in order to keep them soft and warm. I used a brie baker to keep the tortillas warm and wrapped a kitchen towel around it.

Assemble your tacos and enjoy!